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After sprinting up a few flights of stairs, tripping up some rival journalists and wrestling a smartphone out of somebody's hand, ITProPortal has finally managed to get its hands on the freshly-launched Huawei Ascend P7.

I've got to say, I'm pretty happy with it.

Let's face up to reality. Despite the shed-loads of money and time Huawei has pumped into pimping out its consumer devices arm, it's still some way off being considered a rival to the likes of smartphone heavyweights Apple and Samsung.

The Chinese company is desperate to build some sort of a loyal following in this arena, and it's putting all of its eggs into the Ascend Px basket. We were pleasantly surprised by the P6 last year, but it definitely looked better than it actually was. In terms of commercial success, it was a lot more popular than the other mobiles in the Ascend series, but still barely made a mark in the overall market. Huawei wants to change all of this with its new flagship.

Words like "premium" and "quality" were banded around at the launch ceremony, and, after getting up close and personal with the phone, it's difficult to disagree.

The P7 looks and feels like a proper, top-end smartphone. It's sleek (and just 6.5 mm thick), well-designed and fits comfortably in the hand. While it's a little lighter than I'm used to (as a Nokia Lumia owner), it doesn't feel like a toy, like the iPhone 5S does. In terms of looks, I feel that the P7 bears a striking resemblance to the Xperia Z2, which can only be a good thing. I definitely prefer the P7 to the Galaxy S5.

The 5in, Full HD screen is a beauty too, packing a super-clear 445 pixels per inch. Due to the circumstances, I decided to abstain from banging it about on the desktop but it's safe to assume the Gorilla Glass will keep all of those pixels pretty well-protected.

Huawei waxed lyrical over its new 8-megapixel front-facing camera and selfie-enhancing features, but they didn't really bowl me over. I actually found the selfie preview box a bit irritating, and it was insistent on painting my lips bright red (I definitely am not wearing lipstick), as you can see from the pictures.

The 13-megapixel rear camera, complete with its special low-light and "ultra fast" snapshot features, were wasted in the demonstration room, which was well-lit and full of fairly static individuals. The 2,500mAh battery, too, was impossible to test in the circumstances.

In terms of software, I can't argue with Google's KitKat operating system. It is every bit as slick and beautiful as the P7 itself. I don't really care for the new Emotion UI, nor do I find it particularly offensive. I would have preferred the P7 to come in a wider range of colours but (pink aside) the blue-black and white models are very easy on the eye.